HOUSTON -- He hobbled across the
intersection, turning up La Branch Street directly in front of the Toyota Center on
Tuesday morning. Kevin McHale, coach of the Houston Rockets, ankle swollen like
he's hiding a bag of marbles in his tube sock, limped like an undertaker heading to the office.

The 6-foot-10 McHale arrived at work
two hours in front of the Rockets' practice, dark circles around his eyes, his silvering
hair disheveled. And I offer today that it's this man -- and not All-Stars
Dwight Howard or James Harden -- who the Blazers most need to fear today.

The Hall of Fame former player
nodded, paused for a moment to say "Hello." Then, McHale disappeared through
two sets of glass doors into the Rockets' practice and training center with work
to do.

If we learned anything in the long hours
since Portland took a 1-0 lead in this playoff series it's that the Rockets roster
isn't where the leadership is coming from.

Howard is a empty suit in the team
boardroom. The $18-million-a-year center may step to the center of the Rockets'
huddle in the pregame, giving the speeches, and might just awaken in this
series. But if he does, I'm guessing McHale will be the one rousing him.

Howard missed those critical free
throws and became a liability for his team in the closing minutes of regulation
of Game 1. He fouled out. Afterward, he deflected responsibility from
himself, pointing not so subtly at Harden, who missed 20 shots in Game 1.

Said Howard of the ball not going
through the post before Harden's quick shots: "I just think we didn't value a
lot of possessions."

McHale, a three-time NBA champion as a
player, casts an important shadow in this series. Even as the Rockets have
employed Houston-legend Hakeem Olajuwon to work with Howard since last summer,
it's McHale who stands in front of the team daily, and this is the guy the
Rockets themselves fear.

As Chandler Parsons said, "I don't want
to fight him."

McHale shook his head at the notion
that the Blazers had 17 offensive rebounds against a team featuring Howard and 7-foot teammate Omer Asik. McHale also watched
as Robin Lopez played nearly toe-to-toe with Howard for the first half of Game
1. But what appeared to bother Houston's coach most was the look in the eyes of
his players before the game.

"I looked at their faces and our guys
looked like they were hyperventilating," he said.

McHale knows you don't get out of the
first round with a paper bag over your mouth. In fact, people in Houston still
remember McHale and the Celtics beating Olajuwon for the NBA title in 1986 by
planting one foot in the paint and refusing to move it.

It's why McHale becomes so important to
the Rockets, down 0-1. It's probably why Houston hired him in the first place.
After his playing career he bounced from television-analyst work to a general
manager role to coaching Minnesota to his current position with the Rockets.

He didn't love broadcasting games because as he said, "I need to feel something."

I don't know how deft an X-and-O coach
McHale is. But I know he has outstanding leadership qualities and that he
understands where the game is won. I know his locker room respects him, and
that the Rockets would follow him, hobbling over hot coals, right now because
they're facing a 0-2 deficit if they don't.

The Blazers-Rockets series was the last
NBA playoff series to begin, and after watching some of the other Game 2's
officiated more liberally, my sense is this series is about to momentarily
become a scrap. Keep in mind, McHale is the fighter who altered the course of
the 1984 Lakers-Celtics Finals with that legendary Game 4 clothesline takedown
of Kurt Rambis on a breakaway layup.

Last season, before Howard's arrival in
Houston, down 0-3 to Oklahoma City in the first round of the playoffs, McHale
challenged his team to fight. The Rockets won two
straight before bowing out in Game 6.

Will the Rockets follow McHale?

This is the wildcard for the series. Terry Stotts made the most effective early coaching moves of the series, going at Harden early in Game 1 on the defensive end, and also hacking back into the game late by fouling Howard and watching him miss free throws.

An Oregonian reporter after Monday's practice asked Howard how many foul shots he took. He pretended not to hear it. But I suspect McHale already asked.

The counter-move from McHale isn't one of strategy, it's one of tone. He's already played "twin towers" with Asik and Howard together on the floor and I think we'll see plenty of that in Game 2. His counter is to challenge his stars to stop hyperventilating, as if this series is going to come to them if they look anxious about it, and instead go take it back.

McHale played through so much pain and injury as a player that it affects how he walks now. His bad ankle has no bend it in anymore.

Several of the Blazers players talked before practice about the two-day layoff between Games 1 and 2. Many watched the Warriors-Clippers game, lamenting that they might learn something from seeing the higher seed roar back as the officials let the teams play. Nic Batum said he enjoyed the two-day break, "I'll take the rest, but only because we won Game 1."